Penguins coaches move on

Youngstown State football coach Jon Heacock is in the middle of one of the busiest times for the program. It’s not exactly the time he wants to be replacing a couple of assistant coaches.

In the past two weeks, two of Heacock’s top assistants have left the program to take jobs with Football Bowl Subdivision programs.

Defensive coordinator and defensive back coach Jeff Mills, who just completed two seasons with the Penguins, accepted a defensive backfield job at the University of Washington under new head coach Steve Sarkisian.

Defensive line coach Antoine Smith, who was with the Penguins for three seasons, will be the defensive line coach for new head coach Mike Haywood at Miami (Ohio).

Although Heacock is in the middle of recruiting, the eight-year veteran understands his assistants have taken jobs at bigger programs and he couldn’t blame them for leaving.

“It kind of leaves us in a slightly understaffed position for recruiting purposes,” Heacock said.

“But what were doing now is sending out our young coaches Tom Anthony and Mark Spencer out on the road, while the rest of us just has to pick up the slack.

Heacock was probably responsible for Smith getting his new job at Miami. Heacock and Haywood have been close friends for years and Heacock arranged for Smith to work some camps at Notre Dame with Haywood and a relationship developed.

Mills’ connection at Washington was with the Huskies new defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Nick Holt. Mills was defensive coordinator at Idaho when Holt was the head coach then.

Heacock will probably take some time to fill the two positions. Just how and when he is still not certain.

“There has been so much transition in college football right now, changes being made all over the country,” he added. “There are a lot of guys that I’ve coached with over the years looking for work.”

Heacock said ideally he’d like to hire a defensive coordinator, but he’s not certain that’s what he’ll do.

He is considering taking over the coordinator’s position himself and he’s more than qualified to handle the position.

“I’m really not sure just what I want to do right now,” he said. “I took over special teams last season and really enjoyed doing that and whether it was me or not, we did improve in that department.

“If I can find the right person than I’d hire a new coordinator,” Heacock said. “But it’s got to be a guy who believes in the same things that we’ve been doing defensively. It would only be fair to the kids we have coming back and that’s what this is all about.”

The Penguins will begin spring workouts earlier this year, both in date and in time.

“We’ll begin on March 30 and run the entire month of April,” Heacock said. “We’ll hold workouts on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, but this year we’ll be going at 7 or 8 a.m. each session.”

Heacock said the reason for the early times is because it is the only time he’s able to get everybody together.

“Any other times of the day we’d have too many players not available because of classes,” he said.

The spring game will be held April 24 at 7:30 p.m. at Stambaugh Stadium.

Heacock said recruiting has been going very well and he expects to have another outstanding class by signing day, which is Feb. 4.

He’s already got one new recruit signed, sealed and delivered in former Cardinal Mooney High standout Taylor Hill. The defensive standout is enrolled already at YSU and will begin classes today. He’ll be eligible to take part in spring drills also.

Heacock said that he hopes to have five or six local recruits by signing time and he feels that he has strengthened ties with schools in the Akron, Canton and Cleveland areas.

XPete Mollica covers YSU athletics for The Vindicator. Write to him at mollica@vindy.com.